DePaul to Honor Hersey Legend Corzine with Jersey Retirement
MSL Ties to Geneva, York Trips to State Football Finals; Basketball Draft Update; All-MSL Volleyball; Historical Look at Latest MSL Girls Swimming State Success
The news of DePaul basketball planning to retire Dave Corzine’s jersey was a bit surprising.
Not in the sense that it isn’t deserved for the 1974 Hersey graduate and one of the greatest players in Mid-Suburban League history. More along the lines of, “this hadn’t happened already?” Corzine, who does radio analysis for his alma mater, will become just the fourth player to have his jersey (No. 40) retired at Wintrust Arena along with Mark Aguirre (24), Terry Cummings (32) and George Mikan (99).
Aguirre and Mikan are the only players with retired numbers, according to the release from DePaul, since they were national players of the year. Corzine’s jersey retirement will take place at halftime of the Feb. 22 game against Butler.
Corzine is the only DePaul player with more than 1,000 career rebounds (1,151). He passed Mikan as the school’s career scoring leader in 1978 and now ranks fourth (1,896). He was a United Press International third-team all-America selection as a senior along with Magic Johnson.
After Corzine led the 1974 Huskies to become the first MSL basketball team to reach the state tournament (then Class AA Elite Eight), he followed former Hersey star Andy Pancratz to a DePaul program that had fallen on hard times under the legendary Ray Meyer. Pancratz was a senior and Corzine a sophomore when DePaul went 20-9 and ended an 11-year NCAA tournament drought in 1976.
That was the start of the Golden Age of DePaul basketball when it captivated a city starved for any kind of winner because the pro teams were pretty much stumbling, bumbling and slumbering through the “Stupor Seventies.” The zenith would turn out to be 1979 when Meyer’s Blue Demons also captivated the nation in a Final Four run where Aguirre and crew nearly ruined the famed “Magic vs. Bird” title-game duel in a 2-point semifinal loss to Larry Bird and Indiana State.
The 6-foot-11 Corzine was in his rookie campaign of a solid 13-year NBA career at that point. But a year earlier, had it not been for a ill-timed injury, Corzine and the Demons might have broken through to the Final Four for the first time since the 1943 team did it in a 5-year-old event that had only 8 teams.
Corzine scored 23 points in a memorable 69-68 overtime upset late in the 1978 season at Notre Dame where Gary Garland hit a 20-footer just two seconds before the buzzer. In the NCAA tourney, Corzine had 19 in an 80-78 win over Creighton and Palatine freshman and future NBA player Kevin McKenna (18 points).
In the regional semifinal DePaul beat Louisville 90-89 in double overtime as Corzine poured in 46 points and the game-winning hook shot with six seconds to play. That set up a rematch with Notre Dame to go to the Final Four. But in the practice between the two games, Corzine suffered a dislocated little finger on his left hand and had 17 points as the Blue Demons lost 84-64.
Corzine’s 45 points as a Hersey sophomore in 1972 is an MSL boys basketball championship game record that has not been approached. Two years later, he drove the Huskies to Champaign as they topped Waukegan and future NBA center Jerome Whitehead in the supersectional and nearly upset Bloom in the quarterfinals. His play led to a rare first-team all-tournament selection for a team that didn’t reach Saturday’s semifinals.
All’s Well and it Hasn’t Ended Yet for the Wendells at Geneva
Sophomore Nelson Wendell was one of the key contributors to Geneva’s 28-26 Class 6A semifinal upset of defending champion Cary-Grove. Wendell, who was called up from the JV late in the regular season, had an interception, a sack and an onside kick recovery after Geneva took a 28-20 lead.
Wendell is the son of former Buffalo Grove three-sport standout Brad Wendell and the grandson of Hall of Fame BG baseball coach John Wendell. Brad quarterbacked the Bison to the first MSL East football title in 1998 and he has been Geneva’s head baseball coach since 2017, with a record of 123-100 and a regional title in 2021
John Wendell was one of the MSL’s most successful baseball coaches with a 406-305 record from 1986-2008. His second-to-last team reached the Class AA Elite Eight in Joliet and his teams in 1999 and 2002 won 29 games and reached sectional championship games.
Nelson Wendell and Geneva will try to win the school’s first football title next Saturday against perennial powerhouse East St. Louis.
MSL Connections to York’s Title-Game Run
Watching my old school win its 8A semifinal 20-15 at Naperville Central on Saturday night was a bit surreal since York is best-known for its cross country prowess. The Dukes now have a tough test against a Loyola team that knocked them out in semifinals the last two seasons.
During the TV broadcast, longtime IHSA analyst and coach Jack Mcinerney mentioned Gary Grouwinkel’s success at York. Grouwinkel went 31-24 in six years at Prospect with the school’s first playoff appearance in 1977 and a 7-2 team in his final season of 1981 that didn’t make the postseason.
With District 214 in a state of flux with the impending closings of Arlington and Forest View, Grouwinkel came to York and inherited a program that had won 14 games in the previous seven seasons. He immediately set the foundation for a successful 108-72 tenure with 10 playoff teams and the program’s first semifinal trip in 1995. His final game in 1999 was a 6A quarterfinal loss to a Schaumburg team that took second in the state.
This year’s semifinal also had a bizarre finish which play-by-play man Jim Blaney alluded to as a possibility when York faced a fourth-and-inches at its own 43 with 10 seconds left and a 20-13 lead. Rather than risk a punt, quarterback Bruno Massel sprinted 43 yards the wrong way to his end zone and took enough time for a safety as time expired.
Wheeling used a similar play in a 1997 game in a stunning 19-15 season-ending victory that knocked Buffalo Grove out of the playoffs. Because of the damp and drizzly conditions, Wheeling coach Tom Harold didn’t want to risk a punt from midfield with 20 seconds left so he had quarterback Pat Murphy sprint 42 yards to the end zone for a safety with 15 seconds left That did leave time after the free kick for BG to throw a couple of desperation passes that were incomplete.
Christie Brothers and MSL Basketball Draft Update
Rolling Meadows’ Cameron and Max Christie are the most recent NBA draft picks from the MSL. Cameron Christie was taken in the second round by the LA Clippers this summer and is playing with their G-League team in San Diego. Through 5 games he was averaging 15 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists. He has not appeared in an NBA regular-season game yet.
Max Christie, the Lakers’ second-round pick in 2022, was averaging 4.6 points, 1.7 rebounds and 16½ minutes through 15 games. He had 12 points in 16 minutes in a 107-102 loss to Denver.
We also made a couple of additions to the MSL to NBA list of players drafted by the pros (click button below) to include the WNBA selections of Hersey’s Abbie Willenborg in 2000 and Fremd’s Haley Gorecki in 2020. Willenborg, now Abbie Gutzmer, is a teacher and assistant volleyball coach at Vernon Hills.
MSL Volleyball Honors for 2024
The 2024 MSL All-Conference girls volleyball team:
Barrington - Jaelyn Connole (Jr., S), Addie Brookbank (Sr., OH), Whitney Mall (Sr., OH)
Buffalo Grove - Alecsia Baciu (Sr., L), Cameron Damm (Jr., M), Amelia Palubski (Jr., OH), Adeline Sirbu (Sr., M)
Conant - Angie Erkhembayar (Sr., OH)
Elk Grove - Angelica Dylag (So., M/OH)
Fremd - Victoria Belmonte (Sr., S), Ashley Brim (Sr., L), Sasha Sallade (Sr., OH), Emily Karmazin (Jr., M)
Hersey - Ola Wydmanski (Sr., M), Macey Teuscher (Jr., OH)
Hoffman Estates - Bhavya Muthu (Sr., S), Peyton Young (Sr., M)
Palatine - Zoe Johnson (Jr., OH), Alaina Ratay (So., S)
Prospect - Anna Garland (Sr., L)
Rolling Meadows - Lucy Pufundt (Sr., OH), Jelena Jevtic (Sr., L), Mary Hamann (Sr., M)
Schaumburg - Larisa Baldwin (Jr., L)
Wheeling - Katie Moser (Sr., OH/S), Selin Hurdogan (Sr., L)
MSL East Player of the Year - Lucy Pufundt (Rolling Meadows)
MSL West Player of the Year - Victoria Belmonte (Fremd)
Position key: L - Libero, M - Middle, OH - Outside Hitter, S - Setter.
Pufundt was an Illinois Volleyball Coaches Association Class 4A second-team all-state selection and Brookbank received honorable mention. IVCA all-academic team recognition went to Barrington’s Alex Pelletiere and Antonia Rojas and Meadows’ Pufundt, Carmen Powers and Sara Buchholz. All-academic criteria are playing in at least 50 percent of a team’s sets with unweighted GPAs of 3.75 on a 4.0 scale or 4.68 on a 5.0 scale.
Houston Not a Problem for BG Girls Swimming
A second-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle by Buffalo Grove’s Ella Houston in the girls state swimming meet was the program’s best finish in 44 years. Lori Spirek won the 100 backstroke title in 1980 and took second in the event in 1979.
Some other MSL-related notes:
Fremd’s tie for 10th place was its third top 10 finish under coach Andrew Kittrell. Ellie Patla (6th 200 free, 8th 500 free), Noora Nahlawi (6th 100 breaststroke), the 11th-place 200 free relay of Patla, Caterina Gaido, Anna Hinshaw and Sophia Pentchev led the way in the swimming events.
Mihika Tillu’s seventh-place finish in diving extended Fremd’s MSL best of 25 state medals in the event. Barrington is second at 21.
Schaumburg’s Zuzanna Krasnicki took sixth in the 50 free and 12th in the 100 free and her six individual state medals are second in program history to the 7 by Julie DeForest (1985-88). Krasnicki and DeForest are tied for the most individual event and relay state medals at 8.
Now at the MSL Swimming page is the MSL’s girls swimming history in the state meet. It includes all medalists, top 10 team finishes, state champions and some fun information on most championships, most medals and the top five performances per event. Click the button below to check it out.
Gudaitis Ending Football Career on High Note at ISU
Illinois State redshirt junior center and Hersey graduate Ryan Gudaitis was the subject of a nice feature by Barry Bottino of Prairie State Pigskin, which covers Illinois’ four FCS football programs (ISU, Eastern, Western and Southern). Gudaitis found a home this season at center but has decided not to use his final season of eligibility because of back problems.
Gudaitis will go out on a high note as ISU finished the regular season at 9-3 with a berth in the FCS playoffs. The Redbirds got a 12th seed and travel to No. 5 Southeast Missouri State for a first-round game at 11 a.m. Saturday.
Junior Daniel Sobkowicz (Rolling Meadows) leads the Redbirds in receiving with 63 catches for 861 yards and 8 TDs.
Also from Prairie State Pigskin, in Southern Illinois’ season finale, Michael Lindauer threw for a school-record 7 TDs in a 62-0 win over Murray State. Mark Iannotti, who led Schaumburg to the second round of the 2010 playoffs, was one of two SIU quarterbacks with the previous mark of 6 TD passes in a game.
Iannotti spent his first three seasons at Eastern Michigan and had his record-setting game for the Salukis as a junior in 2014.